Day 193
Sleeping location: Home of Friends Guesthouse (camping), Kapchorwa, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 51 / 13337
Estimated climb (m today/total): 900 / 100600
New title: astronaut
Distance (km today/total): 51 / 13337
Estimated climb (m today/total): 900 / 100600
New title: astronaut
Day in three words: Dirt gonna hurt
After munching up some much needed energy in the form of oats and coffee I set off into more of the same as the previous evening, circling Elgon with beautiful views to the right. The road was more of the same dirt, but now steeper and rockier, meaning the cycling was a combination of skiddy technical descents and thigh-straining climbs. Sounds awful but I’m weird so I really enjoyed it. After an hour I arrived in the mythical “forest” though unfortunately it was being enthusiastically cut down. But in between stumps there was still plentiful woodland and meadow and it was very beautiful, with green grass and trees and purple flowering bushes and and rushing water everywhere. After the farce of trying to find somewhere to sleep the previous night it was annoying to find essentially limitless excellent wild camping spots an hour down the road, but such is hindsight.
This section only lasted 10km though, before the infinite village began again. I wonder how long before the two infinite villages destroy all the forest and meet in the middle, forming a kind of superinfinite village*. The people in the infinite village were quiet but friendly, although begging (not really seen since Turkana region) made a brief comeback. Most people just asked for food but one kid shouted “I love you money!” repeatedly, which was at least funny. On both of my snack breaks I had to take cover from a truck spraying water onto the dirt road, presumably to keep the dust down. It was indeed a pernicious dust and by the end of the day my body and possessions were both stained red with it. The spraying was part of some kind of road improvement thing whereby they weren’t paving it but were sort of getting it ready for paving in case they could be bothered at some time in the future. The way they were doing this felt over the top as they had carved some kind of dirt three lane highway into the mountain, which felt way out of place with the sedate surroundings and ended the impression that I was off the beaten track (both literally and figuratively). I’m all for places getting nice shiny new roads at the expense of some adventure for the bike tourist, but this felt like several leaps too far. Still, the surface was much better, even if the gradients never did ease up, and the last section was the easiest (or rather, least difficult).
By the time I reached tarmac at Kapchorwa I was knackered and grabbed onto the back of a soda truck for the last brutal hill into town, partly out of laziness and partly to show off to the guys riding on top. I’d done 50km but my legs felt like it had been 150. In addition I had some more unusual aches: in my hands from being constantly on the brakes, in my shoulders from pulling on the bars up the really steep bits, and in my right calf from being so frequently on the balls of my feet to absorb bumps. Despite all this it was an epic day of riding; I bet it’s so much fun on a nice light mountain bike. In Kapchorwa I got my Ugandan SIM card and withdrew some cash, both of which took way longer than expected whilst I was a thirsty sweaty tired mess. I did at least discover two amazing new snacks: Jackfruit, which isn’t just for vegan hipsters and is actually a tasty fruit, and Rolex, which is an omelette put inside a chapati which is then briefly fried and rolled up (the name comes from...roll eggs). Both were delicious and cost 10p and 20p respectively.
On ioverlander I’d seen that there was a recommended guesthouse where you could camp, so I went there and saw why it was recommended. It was a lovely quiet place with a big grassy garden and lots of space for me to camp, cook and write this very blog whilst enjoying some £1 beers. In the evening I talked with two Dutch overlanders in a 4x4, Dirk and Maria. Like Sven (from Turkana) they were retired and had decided to drive around the world rather than playing backgammon and listening to the (Dutch version of) The Archers. I find this kind of lust for life very inspiring, but was saddened to learn that they often get shunned by touring cyclists they meet, who dismiss car overlanders as taking the easy way. This is a bit pathetic IMO and anyone thinking this way should cease immediately.
Some fun with numbers - today saw my 100,000th metre climbed on this trip. That is to say I have climbed ONE HUNDRED KILOMETRES into the air, which is a decent distance for a day of merely cycling along the ground. Initially I got very excited and though this was roughly 1/4 of the way to the moon, but then realised that the moon is 384,000 kilometres away, not metres. Then I thought it was enough to have at least left the earth’s atmosphere, but then realised that this extends 10,000km above the earth. But THEN I googled “where does space start” and was directed to a Wikipedia article on the “Kármán Line” which said that space starts at...one hundred kilometres into the air. It is therefore objectively true that I HAVE NOW CYCLED INTO SPACE.
*The idea is sad and funny at the same time, like a puppy falling over
After munching up some much needed energy in the form of oats and coffee I set off into more of the same as the previous evening, circling Elgon with beautiful views to the right. The road was more of the same dirt, but now steeper and rockier, meaning the cycling was a combination of skiddy technical descents and thigh-straining climbs. Sounds awful but I’m weird so I really enjoyed it. After an hour I arrived in the mythical “forest” though unfortunately it was being enthusiastically cut down. But in between stumps there was still plentiful woodland and meadow and it was very beautiful, with green grass and trees and purple flowering bushes and and rushing water everywhere. After the farce of trying to find somewhere to sleep the previous night it was annoying to find essentially limitless excellent wild camping spots an hour down the road, but such is hindsight.
This section only lasted 10km though, before the infinite village began again. I wonder how long before the two infinite villages destroy all the forest and meet in the middle, forming a kind of superinfinite village*. The people in the infinite village were quiet but friendly, although begging (not really seen since Turkana region) made a brief comeback. Most people just asked for food but one kid shouted “I love you money!” repeatedly, which was at least funny. On both of my snack breaks I had to take cover from a truck spraying water onto the dirt road, presumably to keep the dust down. It was indeed a pernicious dust and by the end of the day my body and possessions were both stained red with it. The spraying was part of some kind of road improvement thing whereby they weren’t paving it but were sort of getting it ready for paving in case they could be bothered at some time in the future. The way they were doing this felt over the top as they had carved some kind of dirt three lane highway into the mountain, which felt way out of place with the sedate surroundings and ended the impression that I was off the beaten track (both literally and figuratively). I’m all for places getting nice shiny new roads at the expense of some adventure for the bike tourist, but this felt like several leaps too far. Still, the surface was much better, even if the gradients never did ease up, and the last section was the easiest (or rather, least difficult).
By the time I reached tarmac at Kapchorwa I was knackered and grabbed onto the back of a soda truck for the last brutal hill into town, partly out of laziness and partly to show off to the guys riding on top. I’d done 50km but my legs felt like it had been 150. In addition I had some more unusual aches: in my hands from being constantly on the brakes, in my shoulders from pulling on the bars up the really steep bits, and in my right calf from being so frequently on the balls of my feet to absorb bumps. Despite all this it was an epic day of riding; I bet it’s so much fun on a nice light mountain bike. In Kapchorwa I got my Ugandan SIM card and withdrew some cash, both of which took way longer than expected whilst I was a thirsty sweaty tired mess. I did at least discover two amazing new snacks: Jackfruit, which isn’t just for vegan hipsters and is actually a tasty fruit, and Rolex, which is an omelette put inside a chapati which is then briefly fried and rolled up (the name comes from...roll eggs). Both were delicious and cost 10p and 20p respectively.
On ioverlander I’d seen that there was a recommended guesthouse where you could camp, so I went there and saw why it was recommended. It was a lovely quiet place with a big grassy garden and lots of space for me to camp, cook and write this very blog whilst enjoying some £1 beers. In the evening I talked with two Dutch overlanders in a 4x4, Dirk and Maria. Like Sven (from Turkana) they were retired and had decided to drive around the world rather than playing backgammon and listening to the (Dutch version of) The Archers. I find this kind of lust for life very inspiring, but was saddened to learn that they often get shunned by touring cyclists they meet, who dismiss car overlanders as taking the easy way. This is a bit pathetic IMO and anyone thinking this way should cease immediately.
Some fun with numbers - today saw my 100,000th metre climbed on this trip. That is to say I have climbed ONE HUNDRED KILOMETRES into the air, which is a decent distance for a day of merely cycling along the ground. Initially I got very excited and though this was roughly 1/4 of the way to the moon, but then realised that the moon is 384,000 kilometres away, not metres. Then I thought it was enough to have at least left the earth’s atmosphere, but then realised that this extends 10,000km above the earth. But THEN I googled “where does space start” and was directed to a Wikipedia article on the “Kármán Line” which said that space starts at...one hundred kilometres into the air. It is therefore objectively true that I HAVE NOW CYCLED INTO SPACE.
*The idea is sad and funny at the same time, like a puppy falling over
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